OH dear, it's January. That means many of the city's clubs are closed and most of those that are open are promising what are known in the trade as 'Residents Nights'.

go... Clubbing loves resident DJs as much as the next person, but we all know that it's a thinly veiled way of cutting costs because chances are the night won't be filled again till at least the end of the month when a) we all get paid again and, b) we've forgotten that promise to yourself that you're never going to stay up late again.

Under the circumstances, it's probably best to imagine that January doesn't exist and cut straight to February. So, in the spirit of looking forward, we thought it might be more psychologically advantageous for all to look towards 2005 to see what's going to be big.

Times were that clubbing was the domain of the very young. Not so any more. A sign of this is the amount of nights harking backing to the golden days of yore, more often than not something to do with the Hacienda night club. (Should Manchester get over the Hacienda? Discuss).

New Year's Day saw the Tribal Gathering lot put Graeme Park and Mike Pickering back together again for a warehouse party behind Deansgate Locks. Spies reveal it was quite a success. (go...Clubbing was in bed by 10pm New Year's Eve with a bug. Wicked).

There are good ways and bad ways of doing these sort of ventures. Last year Graeme Park was interviewed on the pages and he himself was reticent about getting into the whole retro thing, largely because there's this idea that, if you're looking back, you're admitting your best days are behind you. Something that plainly isn't so, judging by the success of his Key 103 show.

Retro

Retro nights basically fall into two categories. Banging out piano anthems from '92 is bad, but taking the original excitement of acid house and applying it to a whole new generation of people is good. Here endeth the lesson.

If any one thing has been a characterising factor of 2004 it's a whole wave of people looking for more than just music on a night-out. As a result the Manchester scene got dressier (new clubs like Paparazzi and Emporia characterise this trend) and if anything door policies got stricter.

A certain well-respected Manchester club journalist got turned away from the opening night of the now-defunct Babushka, which must have done them the world of good when it came to getting features in that journalist's magazine. Still they did go down the pan quite heroically having turned away almost all of Manchester at some point.

When the chips are down there are always a few clubs you can rely on to keep things fresh. And the strange thing is that a lot of these clubs have been going for many years. Rude In Oldham, All That Jazz at The Music Box, Electric Chair, Northern Funk, Tangled, Friends & Family, Angel Deelite.

These are the people that keep on keeping on despite the vagaries of fashion. They're not at the cutting edge of trends. They are just very good at what they do and their dedicated crowd know it. The result is that 2005 is looking rosy for them all.

But what's really exciting about Manchester is the musical activity that you can never predict; the new trends that spring up out of necessity.

Keep an eye out for El Diablo's Social Club this year, for example. Mix them with the aforementioned established clubs and things are looking rosy all over for the next 12 months.